


Death on the Beach

by katedf



Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: F/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-27
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 15:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katedf/pseuds/katedf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Camille sets Richard's TV to French channels, he loses his temper and chases her on the beach. She's in the water, he's on land. It looks like a stalemate, but to Richard, losing is not an option. Follows episode 2.4</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death on the Beach

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE this show! One episode a week is just not enough, so thank you to the writers here for giving me some mid-week Richard and Camille to tide me over! My public TV station just showed episode 2.4, and I wanted to add my take on the chase scene to the other (brilliant!) ones I've read here.

Dwayne and Fidel leaned on the railing of the veranda and watched the Chief run out onto the sand. 

“I order you to come back here and fix this!” Richard shouted.

“Oh, yeah,” said Dwayne to Fidel. “Like that’s gonna make her come back here.” 

The younger man chuckled and shook his head. 

“You can’t stay in there forever!” Richard shouted, and Camille took off running in the surf. Richard ran along the sand, close to the waterline but trying not to get his shoes wet.

“Can’t believe he’s running down the beach like that,” said Fidel. “He hates the sand.”

“Yeah, but he’s too mad at her to notice it yet.”

“So, what do you think? Will he catch her?”

Dwayne shrugged, “Depends on if she wants him to.”

“Do you think she does?” asked Fidel.

“Oh, yeah. She just hasn’t figured that out yet.”

Richard shouted something they couldn’t hear, and Camille stopped running. He advanced toward her, but a wave chased him back. She edged tantalizingly nearer, then hopped back. 

Fidel became bored watching the arm waving and not being able to hear what was being said. “Maybe we should leave them to sort it out.”

Dwayne smiled and said, “Yeah. When they’re done fighting they just might be glad if we’re not here.” He pulled out a pad and scribbled a quick note saying they were leaving. 

Camille ran a bit farther, staying in the water. Richard ran a parallel path on the beach. Suddenly he stopped running and thought about what he was doing. She could probably keep this up longer than he could. She must think he’d give up and she would win. Unacceptable! He wasn’t a quitter, but what were his options? He could dash into the water and ruin his shoes and maybe, just maybe, he could grab her. Hauling a squealing Camille out of the water was an appealing scenario. That was unlikely. Given his luck at impressing women, he would fall and make a fool of himself. So what was he going to do? 

Then, much as inspiration would strike when he solved a case, he found an answer. Deception! He had enjoyed taking part in theatricals when he was at university. When they did “Beyond the Fringe, he’d gotten laughs as the one-legged Superman. He’d been good at improv, too. Curtain going up, he thought, waiting for just the right moment.

Camille noticed that Richard had stopped shouting. She looked back to see how close he was, and saw that he had stopped running. He stood, bent forward at the waist, hands on knees, and appeared to be breathing heavily. _Merde!_ She hadn’t thought about the heat. She wore shorts and was in the cool water. He wore long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt. He still had that damn tie on, too. What if she’d given him heatstroke or a heart attack?

As if on cue, Richard dropped to his knees, loosening his tie as he did so. 

“RICHARD!” Terrified, Camille ran out of the water and across the sand. “Richard! Oh my God, Richard! Don’t die!”

She dropped to her knees in front of him. “What is it, are you faint, are you in pain?” She put her fingers against his neck, trying to find a pulse. “Where’s your phone, I should call an ambulance.”

By this time, she had moved her hands to his face. His hands snapped up and grabbed her wrists. She shrieked and he laughed.

“Right, Borday. Back we go and you WILL fix my television.”

He struggled to get them both to their feet and began to pull her toward the house.

“What?” She cried, “You were FAKING that?”

“It got you out of the water, didn’t it?”

She continued to splutter as they moved along the sand. He kept hold of both wrists because he was pretty sure she was angry enough to hit him. By the time they reached the house, she was crying.

“You bastard! I thought you were gonna die! Do you have any idea how much you scared me?” 

He stopped and looked at her. She was shaking. Whether it was from anger or fear, he couldn’t tell.

“Oooh! Sometimes you make me so mad, I could kill you!”

“But just a bit ago, you didn’t want me to die.”

Camille thought about how frightened she had been and how relieved she was that he wasn’t actually dying. But he had tricked her, so she couldn’t let him off that easily. 

“Yeah, well… I changed my mind,” she said. He could see her anger waning. He thought about his next move. She was beautiful when she was angry, but even he knew better than to use that line.

“A condemned man usually gets a last request, you know.” 

“And yours would be to fix that stupid TV, wouldn’t it? So you could ogle that whatsername.” 

“No, if it’s my last request, I’m going to make it something more important than that.”

The expression on his face made her go still. He risked releasing her wrists, and slid his hands down to hold her hands. 

“Something much more important,” he said softly, closing the distance between them. 

And then he kissed her.

And she decided to let him live after all.


End file.
